


I'll be Home for Christmas

by FreshPrincess_ishere



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/M, Madness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 21:22:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17271356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreshPrincess_ishere/pseuds/FreshPrincess_ishere
Summary: Valkyrie enjoys a Christmas Eve of madness by herself, awaiting her partners return. Follow her footsteps.





	I'll be Home for Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LassieLowrider](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LassieLowrider/gifts).



**I'll Be Home for Christmas**

* * *

As Christmases went, this one really took the cake for being absolutely mad.

Valkyrie begun her day at five thirty in the morning, tracking a werewolf through the lower neighbourhood of Belfast. Normally she wouldn’t complain on doing the occasional odd job by herself but everything that could have happened wrong… _did._

She was eating a bacon and egg roll, staking out the werewolf house when it burst free from the front door, chains hanging off thick hairy wrists and calves. Blame on her normally trusting nature – or the fact that she was occupied thinking about Tanith’s gift – but she hadn’t even thought to double check the house to make sure it was secure. 

China had informed her that it _was_ a werewolf, but it was just a precaution and that he hadn’t been able to break from his restraints in previous occasions. Upon hearing that, and not having Skulduggery beside her to wisely state they should still check the chains and doors were all still reinforced, she had nodded, yawned and accepted the ‘easy’ job.

 It wasn’t like she could do much else, Skulduggery had jumped off with something important to do three days before Christmas with a promise he would be back in time. She had to assume that since the secretive nature of his escaping, it was about a present.

If it wasn’t and she had to deal with a werewolf because he had _more important_ things to do, she was going to take issue.

By seven thirty in the morning, she had a mess of confused frightened citizens, was covered in mud and foliage, and was experiencing a slight concussion.

Of course, the headache that accompanied it only increased when she saw the look certain people gave her when they were looking at the number of ordinary citizens that would need to have their minds wiped.

 But considering she had just dealt with an aggressive monster dog, she couldn’t care less.

When she finally cleared up the mess – or oversaw the clearing up – she stopped by the High School to pass along presents to Omen. She didn’t really want to catch him, she wanted to leave it at the office but as luck would have it, she ran into the boy just outside.

And was subjected to another wave of madness.

Omen was convinced that his school was overrun by some sort of dark magicians. When she prompted him on what he meant by magician, he waffled about as if he didn’t understand the question.

He dragged her all around, showing her admittedly bizarre behavior or examples of the “plague of magicians” but it was all such a blur that by the end; when he had a pointed look on his face, she couldn’t remember any of it.

She had simply placed a hand on his shoulder, smiled and stated, “It’s Christmas Omen, if nobody is dying, I’m not going to be poking around in it. 

That took three hours. Three hours of observing the facts with Omen, listening to his conspiracy theories and getting strange and disgusted looks by faculty and student alike at the fact she was being pulled along inside their school.

So, by eleven thirty… she was starving but was racing against the clock. The shop where she had gotten Tanith’s gift from – a custom-made cleaver with a little rose on the blade for giggles – were closing early seeing as it was Christmas, so she had a small opportunity to get to the shop and pick it up.

However, when she got there, it was a whole different kerfuffle.

The maker had _misplaced_ the sword. Considering the state of the shop, Valkyrie was immensely worried that he had thrown it out. She had watched him search for a good hour before rolling up her sleeves and rubbing her tired eyes, prepared to tear his shop apart.

He was an awfully chatty man also. An elemental but not overly fond of using his powers. He preferred the work of his trade and it reminded her of Ghastly. Made her smile sadly as she searched, remembering the look of serenity on his face when he was working at fabric with those talented hands of his.

Eventually, they found it. Buried underneath his bed, out of all things, after abandoning the shop and beginning the search upstairs in his quaint apartment.

  
Despite having to spend another two hours listening to an old man waffle about the youth of this age and his fourteen-year-old niece, the cleaver was perfect. Valkyrie had swung it a few times, pretending to understand what he was saying when he was talking about the weight, and durability.

To her, it just looked cool and sharp.

She hoped Tanith would like it.

Lunch on the way home consisted of terrible take-out but deliciously warm coffee.

 And good thing for it, because in her tired _zombie-like_ behavior this morning to leave for her job, she had abandoned Gordon’s house to nothing but the biting cold. Xena was tucked in her bed, nice and toasty, not bothering but Valkyrie had been looking forward to a toasty warm house.

She spent the rest of the afternoon, fighting to stay awake, thermostat turning up full and cleaning. Why she chose cleaning out of the activities to do, she had no idea. Cleaning always tired her out and made her want to sleep before anything was even done.

She thought about possibly going to her parents and seeing Alice but a dull ache in her chest told her that tomorrow might be best.

After all, she was supposed to be having company tonight.

After cooking herself a big pot of spaghetti bolognaise – which didn’t taste as bad as she thought it would – she sat down on the couch and just began thinking. About Christmas and how close it was to the New Year, and how the days in-between always went so quickly or so slowly. Where she was last year this time, how she felt, what had changed.

When the time slowly ticked to 11:00 and she had not heard a peep from Skulduggery all day, she wasted her time imagining the needling she would give him for not sticking to his promise. She could have gone to bed years ago, now that her headache – and concussion hopefully – had vanished. 

Once she had a firm argument in her mind, she rose to her feet, ready to shut everything down for the night when a loud, thump and crash echoed to her right. She turned on her feet, eyes narrowing at the feet through the bottom of her window.

Well, not feet really. Shoes. Expensive shoes. Drenched in snow.

Through the window.

They moved a little and the body attached to it outside lifted, and straightened, a white face peering into her house.

  
Empty sockets met eyes.

His head tilted, “Are you going to invite me in?”

A reluctant smile crept of her face, wondering if it was possible to pull a skeleton through the window by on his ankle bones.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you enjoy it! Happy Holidays!


End file.
